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THE 


SECOND  ANNUAL  ORATION, 


DELIVERED  BEFORE 


THE 


BELLES  LETTRES  AND  UNION  PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETIES  OP 

DiaZIlTSOlT  COLLEGE, 

w 

AT  THEIR  REQUEST, 

UY  THE  LUTHERAN  CHURCH,  IJY  CARLISLE, 

9JS  TUESDAY   EVENING  THE   28TH  PAY   OF   SEPT.,,    1827. 


BY  CHARLES  F.  MAYER,  A.  M^^^ 

.Of  Baltimore,  Juil.,  J\Jtmber  cj  the  ljdtta  jLtiirisi  8u 


CARLISLE! 

PRINTED   AT   THE   OFFICE   OF  THE  "HERALD/' 

mi. 


DICKTNSON    COLLEGE,    SEPTEMBER   27,    1821. 
Dear  Sir — The  Belles  Lettres  and  Union  Philosophical  Societies  return 
yon  their  thanks  for  the  excellent  Oration  delivered  before  them  last  evening, 
and  respectfully  request  a  copy  of  it  for  publication. 

With  much  respect,  Sir,  we  remain  yours,  &c. 
John  C.  Jenkins, 
Benjamin  Patton,  Jr. 
John  Jl.   Gray, 
James  Vanhorn,  f  g 

Baker  J.   Ross, 
Augustus  0.  Hiester, 


Uv5  Q> 


©is.a^i<©rf< 


I  feel,  gentlemen,  that  this  hour  is  sacred  to  the  cause  of 
the  minrl.  To  unfold  its  contemplative  beauties,  to  light 
up  the  rich  area  of  this  classical  anniversary,  is  the  office 
with  which  you  have  honoured  me.  In  celebrating  the 
majesty  of  intellect  and  the  luminous  victories  of  science, 
I  have  to  perform  a  duty  worthy  of  the  most  graceful 
talent;  and  it  is  at  once  a  solemn  and  an  elegant  ministry 
thus  to  serve  within  the  terse  and  peaceful  precincts  of  the 
mind's  domain.  It  is  especially  arduous,  I  might  almost 
say  ungenial,  for  me,  summoned  to  it,  as  I  have  been,  from 
the  strict  research,  the  solicitous  toils,  and  keen  collisions 
of  Professional  life.  However  refreshing  to  one  wearied 
with  the  contentious  realities  and  vigilant  tactics  of  that 
life  may  be  the  scenery  of  the  regions  of  thought  and  of  taste, 
it  is  not  easy  for  him  to  attune  his  mind  for  the  homage  the 
spectacle  deserves;  for  it  is  the  tendency  of  the  Law's  ad- 
amantine studies  and  elaborate  detail  to  repress  the  Fan- 
cy's etherial  activity,  and  arrest  the  mind's  excursiveness 
above  the  level  of  its  stern  pursuits.  I  come,  nevertheless, 
to  the  functions  which  have  been  indulgently  allotted  me, 
as  a  tributary  to  a  cherished  authority,  to  offer  upon  the 
early  theatre  of  my  mental  efforts  and  emulation  the  hum- 
ble measure  of  my  service.  It  is  not  for  my  powers  to 
enamel  any  florid  beauties  upon  the  truth  of  the  literary 
past  and  present.  The  occasion  is,  indeed,  worthy  of  ail 
that  the  mind  in  its  energy,  and  the  imagination  in  its  vo- 
tive harmonies,  can  invest  it  with;  but  that  con^um  nation 
belongs  to  some  more  ornamental  minister  of  the  period, 
who,  with  more  epic  feeling  and  richer  unction,  may  exult 
amidst  the  bloom  of  Literature  and  in  the  spirit  of  aspiring 
Science. 

Still  we  may  admire  with  one  another  the  healthful 
air  and  the  soothing  temperature,  that  reign  in  the  Republic 
of  Letters,  and  commune  together  on  the  literariy  eminences 
above  the  thrifty  walks  of  business.     We  may  mark  the 


682273 


4  SECOND    ANNUAL   ORATION. 

culture  that  reflects  its  grateful  charms  from  the  scene  and. 
makes  indeed  the  "Earth's  great  altar  send  up  its  silent 
pr  rise" — and  we  may  rejoice  in  the  light  of  intelligence 
that  falls  upon  it  and  the  happiness  that  smiles  over  it. 

I  shall  not  offer  you  a  studious  rehearsal  of  the  triumphs 
of  Science,  or  the  luxuriance  of  Literature,  or  propound  di- 
d  k  tic  oracles  for  your  improvement, — all  I  can  aspire  to  is 
to  elicit  from  the  thoughtful  genius  of  the  occasion,  and 
display  in  as  fair  proportions  as  I  may,  the  sentiments  with 
which  it  is  imbued,  and  which  are  the  common  perceptions 
of  us  all,  I  have  come  hot  as  the  guest  of  your  minds — to 
enjoy  with  you  a  hospitable  intellectual  communion — and 
that  feast  of  reason  which  the  occasion  furnishes  and  to 
which  my  mind  can  contribute  no  luxuries  of  its  own  pe- 
culiar product. 

It  is  pleasing  to  witness  the  unison  of  your  societies  in 
this  celebration.  They  mingle  here  their  common  zeal 
and  aspirations  toward  their  high  intelligent  purpose,  with 
no  irritated  rivalry,  and  with  only  a  fervid  emulation  in  the 
aim  of  rational  excellence.  The  mind  may  well  glow  in 
such  a  career.  That  ardor,  while  it  propels  ambition, 
kindles  genius  to  its  illuminations,  and  raises  the  tone  and 
awakens  the  energies  of  intellect.  In  such  a  temperature 
we  may  anticipate  all  the  substantial  fertility  of  mind  and 
the  fairest  exuberance  of  imagination.  The  spirit  of  Science 
and  Literature  is  unobtrusive  and  serene:  but  it  is  most  per- 
vading and  efficient  in  the  inspired  warmth  and  hues  of  en- 
thusiasm. Its  reign  is  that  of  the  golden  age,  and  no  bit- 
ter antipathies  are  admitted  to  its  limits,  or  can  endure  the 
atmosphere  of  its  territory.  Within  its  borders,  and  breath- 
ing the  same  air  of  liberal  feeling,  dwell  the  two  associations 
I  have  the  honor  to  address,  confederated  in  one  deep  and 
generous  interest. 

Literary  genius  has  thus  ever  delighted  in  the  climates 
of  peace:  in  any  other  it  but  languidly  exists.  It  flourishes 
not  as  the  parasite  of  despotism — or  to  embroider  the  vani- 
ty of  aristocracy;  but  only  in  the  epiiet  shelter  of  order  and 
virtue.  And  the  spirit  of  science,  irrepressible  and  diffu- 
sive :is  electricity  itself,  yet  shuns  the  inflamed  scenes  of 
contention,  and  retreats  rather  to  the  humblest  retirement  to 
work  out  her  stores. 

For  these  truths,  and  only  for  that  purpose,  let  us  recur 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  5 

to  the  days  when  the  literature  of  Europe  was  immured  in 
her  convents,  ami  scarcely  threw  a  ray  from  its  grave  seclu- 
sion upon  the  dreary  face  of  surrounding  society — when  all 
that  field  was  overshadowed  by  the  haughty   towers,  and 
convulsed  with  the  turbulence,  of  feudal  bravos — a  race  of 
titled  ruffians*  and  chartered  libertines,  whose  point  of  excel- 
lence was  i\m  most  consummate  tyranny,  and  the  element 
of  whose  prowess  was  the  darkness  of  the  public  mind. 
In  the  midst  of  this  unhallowed  tumult,  science  and  learn- 
ing could  not  venture  forth,  and  the  breath  of  Heaven  reach- 
ed them  only  when  the  distempered  visions  of  the  crusades 
and  the  enchantments  of  chivalry  with  its  romantic  but  sub- 
duing vagaries  fell  upon  the  dull  intellect  and  riotous  spirits 
of  the  day.     I  will  not,  however,  take  up  your  time  with 
the  oft-told  tale  of  the  struggles  of  Learning,  and  its  long 
hermitage,   nor  carry  you  thro'  its  cloistered  passages  or 
to  its  narrow  cells  where  its  light  was  not  shed  beyond  the 
field  of  the  monk's  studious  lam]}; — nor  to  its  oriental  re- 
treats, wherein  scholastic  pomp  it  was  more  graciously  en- 
tertained— nor  to  its  asylum  in  the  chill  solitudes  of  Iceland. 
It  is  not  now  the  peculiar  possession  of  the  recluse, — or 
sometimes  perhaps  of  a  prince  who,  (a  generous  anomaly,) 
departing  from  the  fierce  ideal  of  the  age  descended  to  the 
effeminacies  of  learning — or  in  a  patronizing  whim  chose  to 
favour  the  musing  of  some  gifted  or  pedantic  devotee — or 
the  extravagances  of  some  strolling  rhapsodist. 

Let  us  rejoice  that  no  paltry  tyranny  of  the  middle 
ages,  no  dark  baronial  arrogance,  now  mars  the  social  or- 
der and  frowns  upon  our  social  harmonies,  leaving  the 
world  to  desolute  ignorance  and  the  wastes  of  riot. 

A  clearer  sky  is  above  us  now,  and  the  world  glories  in 
intellectual  vigour.  Learning  has  enthroned  herself  in  the 
limits  of  civilized  life  ;  her  sovereignty  is  adorned  with  all 
the  charms  of  taste  ;  her  sway  is  chastened  with  all  the  sen- 
sibility of  genius — the  cordial  influences  of  Literature.  I 
need  but  mention  Science  and  Literature  as  now  expounded 
and  ennobled  to  suggest  at  once  their  beautiful  and  varied 
panorama  to  your  minds; — an  array  at  once  stupendous  and 
benignant.  Instead  of  a  sepulchral  seclusion — a  light 
burning  in  those  tombs  of  active  life, — the  monasteries  of 
old, — we  have  learning  in  her  graceful  courts  with  her  col- 
onnades of  taste,  her  fountains  of  salutary  thought,   her 


b  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION. 

light  dispersing  itself  wide  as  human  conception,  her  envi- 
rons enticing  with  their  fragrance  and  invigorating  with  their 
vital  air  tht\  wayward  or  the  dispirited, — her  firmament  the 
picture  of  omnipotence,— the  banner  of  Heaven.  Such  in- 
deed is  tlie  hallowed  temple  of  reason, — the  gradual  growth 
of  well  regulated  intelligence — not  the  shrine  of  spurious 
Philosophy  and  a  recreant  spirit  of  independence.  We  do 
not  recognize  that  Philosophy  Which,  blind  to  the  confines 
of  human  reason,  in  its  insurgent  aim  and  infatuated  flight 
mistakes  the  mysterious  grandeur  and  remoteness  of  the 
Divinity  for  the  darkness  of  chance.  Then  visions  of  law- 
less imagination  fill  up  the  void,  and  these  in  turn  are  deem- 
ed revelations  of  independent  intellects  and  dictated  as  les- 
sons of  practical  philosophy.  But  I  will  not  dwell  on 
these  profanations  of  the  rebellious  mind,  nor  figure  scenes 
which  dared  the  Heavens,  and  a  madness  that  sought  to 
obliterate  the  Divinity. 

It  is  indeed  true  that  this  age  may  exult  in  its  superb 
scientific  advancement.  The  spirit  of  the  period  is  literary 
and  scientific,  especially  in  those  countries,  emphatically 
in  this,  where  the  liberty  of  the  press  circulates  thought 
and  solicits  research; — where  political  freedom  requires  the 
paths  of  state  to  be  ever  lighted,  that  the  seats  and  conduct 
of  the  servants  of  our  power  may  be  ever  in  view — and  that 
the  entrenchments  of  our  political  rights  may  be  effectually 
preserved.  The  spirit  of  the  period  is  scientific; — for  its 
practical  results  are  ever  re  aching  the  business  and  bosoms 
Li  men,  as  well  as  (he  high  concernment  of  states. 

ry  day  brings  to  your  view,  almost  every  move- 
ment of  active  life  intimates  to  you,  this  bountiful,  this  im- 
perial agency  of  science.  Our  whole  economy  has  been 
i  shioned  and  quickened  by  %  audit  is  the  aid  and  discipline 
of  all  our  industry. 

It  enriches  and  animates  all  those  arts  that  tend  to  hu- 
man comfort  or  aggrandizement; — from  those  that  supply 
individual  pro  perity,  or  minister  to  private  elegance,  to 
those  that  sustain  the  schemes  of  empire: — from  those  that 
bo  le  fcaal  serVe  the  battle-field  and  en- 
I  i  of  ambition,      fl  braves  the  stormy  pride  of 

I  .  —  the  rivers  Row  in  its  channels — the    retired 

jpur^oses.  The  Earth  and  the  Heav- 

itial  secrets  and  detect- 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  7 

ftd  worlds  in  the  recesses  of  the  universe,  and  brought  down 
the  stars  to  the  service  of  earth  and  made  them  the  auxili- 
aries of  men. 

Chemistry  lias  explored  the  material  world  and  given 
mankind  the  useful  triumphs  of  analysis.  It  has  pryed  in- 
to the  affections,  and  read  the  very  heart  of  matter — its 
various  alliances  and  elective  tendencies,  and,  learning  its 
repugnancies,  it  has  reached  the  elemental  forms  of  things 
so  far  as  human  reason  may  test  material  substances,  or 
scan  the  texture  of  mysteries.  Thus  has  chemistry  gained 
a  plastic  authority  over  all  the  dispositions  of  matter,  dictat- 
ing its  combinations  to  suit  the  fancies  and  enhance  the  com- 
fort of  men.     It  is  the  allv  of  Medicine,  the  universal  a2:ent 

V  7  tJ 

of  Manufactures,  and  organizing  and  instructing  Agricul- 
ture, it  charms  from  the  earth  a  more  fertile  tribute  and  en- 
livens its  empire  with  the  bounteous  green  of  plenty. 

Geology  and  Mineralogy  have  told  us,  too,  of  the  var 
rious  constituents  of  our  planet,  and  inferred  from  its  rocky 
legends  its  strange  vicissitudes — while  chemistry  has  gone 
down  into  its  deep  bosom,  to  give  sure  light  to  those,  who  for 
profit  or  fame,  grope  through  her  silent  domain,  and  ransack 
her  sequestered  treasury. 

All  the  physical  sciences  have  been  growing  in  strength 
and  wealth,  and  are  endued  with  new  faculties. 

Mechanical  philosophy  has  exemplified  the  transcend- 
ant  power  of  human  intellect,  in  rousing  the  inertness,  and 
conquering  the  impediments,  of  the  inanimate  world. 

By  her  progress  we  see  in  magnificent  illustration  that 
it  is  by  the  nerve  of  mind  that  the  lever  rises,  and  that  the 
wheel  but  revolves  with  the  resoluteness  and  urgency  of  in- 
tellect. The  mind  of  man  presides  in  the  motions  of  the 
industrious  mill,  as  in  the  impetuous  energies  of  the  Steam- 
boat. Passing  from  the  mind  in  its  embodied  life  in  me- 
chanical philosophy,  we  shall  see  it  no  less  pre-eminent  in 
that  field  of  its  abstract  glories,  the  range  of  Mathematical 
science.  Here  that  science  with  severe  simplicity,  and 
the  most  intense  analysis,  denotes  the  enduring  and  im- 
pregnable force  of  mind. 

It  has  been  cultivated  until  its  principles  are  so  devel- 
oped that  problems  apparently  the  most  recondite  are  solved 
with  little  trouble  beyond  the  enunciation  of  a  few  maxims; 


8  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION. 

and  the  mystery  of  quantities  and  numbers  has  been  simp- 
lified to  the  perspicuous  array  of  demonstration. 

Political  Economy  the  philosophy  of  national  interest 
and  the  science  of  wealth*  receives  its  frequent  tributes  in 
treatises  of  vigorous  and  original  thought,  and  is  referred 
to  principles  of  practical  purport,  and  illustrated  and  tested 
by  practical  results. 

It  is  a  science  that,  without  any  narrow  spirit  or  sor- 
did complexion,  delivers  to  nations  the  precepts  of  the1 
highest  prudence  and  pecuniary  polity,  and  provides  them 
with  a  financial  armament  equivalent  to  martial  genius  and 
military  array. 

It  is  the  contemplation  of  the  most  marked  and  essen- 
tial effects  of  our  social  system,  and  the  positive  institutions 
of  property,  and  society  is  reflected  in  its  organized  indus- 
try and  in  all  its  civilized  machinery.  It  is  the  science 
of  society  in  reference  to  the  great  rallying  principles  of 
interest  and  social  strength  and  expediency;  the  burden  of 
its  exposition  is  the  complex  harmonies  of  the  association 
of  men ;  and  its  disquisition  tends  to  the  central  and  con- 
troling  principles  and  schemes  that  may  regulate  and  en- 
rich the  collective  interest  of  the  community.  Much  space 
in  this  science  has  been  occupied  with  the  discussion  of  the 
force  of  terms  and  the  effect  of  definitions.  But  their  ex- 
aminations are  not  merely  verbal,  although  they  regard  the 
nomenclature  of  the  subject,  since  the  terms  indicate  and 
involve  the  cardinal  principles  of  the  study,  and  their  con- 
sideration opens  for  debate  the  theories  of  wealth  and  finan- 
cial wisdom.  The  science,  however,  in  its  more  recent 
speculations,  deals  less  with  these  controversies  on  terms, 
details  operations  and  effects,  and  infers  principles  of  sound 
prudential  &  lucrative  policy.  It  is  the  associate  of  the  moral 
science  of  Government; — and  is  emphatically  the  study  for 
Republics,  whose  peculiar  and  consummate  aim,  &  natural 
beauty,  it  is  to  unite  efficiency  with  economy,  and  to  whom 
profuse  experiments  in  finance  cannot  be  allowed.  And  it 
is  grateful  to  find  the  study  intently  and  profoundly  pursued 
in  this  country,  in  the  works  of  our  Raymonds  and  Coopers; 
while  we  have  the  liirht  of  England  in  her  llicardos  and 
M'Cullochs,  and  others,  with  genius  worthy  of  a  concern 
with  the  financial  grandeur  of  that  country,  and  the  stupen- 
dous phenomena  of  British  industry. 


SECOND    ANNUAL   ORATION.  V 

The  science  of  duty,  in  Ethics,  like  the  science  of  inter- 
est in  Political  Economy,  has  also  heen  enlightened  by  the 
unsophisticated  writings  of  more  modern  enquiries.  Theo- 
rists in  this  sphere  once  raised  their  various  standards  of 
moral  obligation,  &  patronized  them  with  industrious  argu- 
ment and  lavish  illustration  as  the  points  of  tendency  of  all 
our  moral  impulses,  and  the  solidity  of  all  our  moral  senti- 
ment. To  vindicate  to  one  common,  undisguised,  and  co- 
gent principle  all  these  standards,  is  the  aim  of  our  Moral 
Philosophy.  And  the  result  is  to  challenge  the  reasons 
against  the  rules  of  moral  obligation,  rather  than  to  raise 
theories  to  enforce  it,  or  erect  sanctions  to  which,  by  the  charm 
of  ingenious  logic,  all  moral  action  may  be  constrained  to  re- 
fer itself. 

In  the  advancement  of  the  Medical  art,  too,  Science  has 
given  its  guardian  care  to  man.  Medicine  no  longer  deals 
in  a  blind  catalogue  of  experimental  or  random  appliances, 
but  it  stands  organized  under  a  luminous  and  comprehen- 
sive Philosophy.  The  reign  of  empiricism  has  passed 
away;  the  adventures  of  quackery  are  soon  baffled;  and 
the  counterfeit  interlopers  in  this  hallowed  science  are  in- 
dustriously discovered  and  proscribed.  The  scope  of 
Medical  study  has  in  various  aspects  been  enlarged,  and 
new  auxiliary  sciences  have  become  essential  accomplish- 
ments of  the  Physician.  It  is  in  a  great  degree  the  eminent 
honour  of  our  modern  times  to  have  thus  vindicated  this 
beneficent  science  to  its  due  dignity  ;  to  have  thus  entrench- 
ed an  art  appendant,  it  might  almost  be  said,  to  divinity, 
and  sharing  the  solemnity  of  the  human  destiny,  against 
the  mockery  of  magical  artifices,  and  every  species  of  pre- 
ternatural deceit,  and  idle  or  reckless  intermeddling. 

Thus  universally  propitious  has  Learning  been,  and 
so  magnificent  is  her  opulence,  in  these  periods;  and  thus 
grandly  has  science  triumphed,  as  now  exemplified  in 
only  a  few  chapters  of  her  glory. 

But  let  us  retire  now  into  the  sublime  dome  of  the  mind 
herself,  and  take  the  index  of  our  Intellectual  Philosophers 
to  the  powers  that  there  dwell,  and  mark  the  profound  con- 
ference of  mind  with  mind  itself.  The  Philosophy  of  the 
mind,  engaged  with  our  supreme  peculiarities — the  points 
of  our  regal  excellence — is  pursued  under  a  sense  of  fcheif 
august  nature,  and  to  ends  of  substantial  utility  and  beauti- 

2 


10  SECOND    ANNUAL   ORATION, 

ful  development.  It  is  no  longer  a  quest  after  fue-itivo 
mysteries,  or  a  futile  tracking  of  the  thought  o  detect  inac- 
cessible essences  that  are  hid  in  the  depths  of  eternity,  and 
consecrated  in  the  awful  intelligence  of  the  Deity.  It  no 
longer  leaves  the  solid  data  of  experience  and  distinct  unerr- 
ing consciousness,  to  follow,  on  the  honest  premises  of  Berk- 
ley, or  the  less  pious  errors  of  Hume,  their  speculative 
phantoms — leading  into  a  world  of  ideality  and  flitting  theo- 
ries, where  skepticism,  with  its  bewildering  apparitions,  dis- 
solves the  material  world  into  a  mere  phantasy;  cheats  the 
mind  of  its  conscious  existence,  and  the  heart  of  a  home,  and 
banishes  it  to  a  desert.  Our  Intellectual  Philosophy  dis- 
tinguishes between  mere  verbal  forms  and  diflerences,  and 
mental  creations,  movements,  and  affections :  and,  precise 
in  its  definition,  and  tenacious  in  its  use  of  terms,  it  looks 
for  the  mind  in  the  midst  of  her  conceptions  and  as  she  there 
rules  and  glows.  It  regards  the  mind  in  its  actual  and  use- 
ful economy,  in  its  connexion  with  the  material  tilings  and 
with  an  aspect  toward  them.  It  treats  words  but  as  the, 
messengers  of  the  intellect  to  the  external  world,  and  deems 
that  the  thoughts  are  therefore  to  be  vested  in  material  anal- 
ogies and  exhibited  in  a  material  mould.  It  dc-es  not  look 
at  the  mind's  abstractions  as  a  sort  of  ethereal  emanation 
from  its  intrinsic  nature;  an  impalpable  tissue  of  airy  nega- 
tives, that  no  definition  can  embody;  but  it  views  the  mind 
as  the  agent  of  powers  of  high,  though  mysterious,  kindred; 
dealing  in  this  world  of  sense  with  material  objects,  and 
not  as  the  mere  sanctuary  of  ideas  chanc  ng  to  be  introduced 
into  it  in  methodical  and  intelligent  succession.  In  short, 
the  Philosophy  of  the  Mind,  no  longer  a  grave  game  of  the 
fancy  and  a  torture  or  seducer  of  the  intellect,  is  but  a  s^  s- 
tem  of  intent  and  assiduous  self-inquiry;  an  earnest  survey, 
by  the  explicit  tests  of  consciousness,  of  the  intellectual 
scheme  and  habitudes  and  action.  Noting  the  mind's  vari- 
ous combinations  and  analysis,  and  the  faculties  that  sustain 
its  pursuits  and  obey  its  dictates  as  they  come  from  the 
throne  of  will,  it  observes  the  impulses  that  press  the  mind 
to  its  aim,  and  its  wakeful  elasticity  and  its  universal  ex^ 
cursiveness. 

Its  tendency  is  ever  to  intimate  "the  secret  moral  of 
the  mystic  show;"  and  th<>  height  of  its  fair  argument  reach- 
es Heaven  itself.      Stizii^  the  imagination,  alert  una  eiu« 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  ll 

sive  as  she  is,  it  presents  her  to  us  as  the  useful  as  well  as 
decorative  ally  of  stricter  reason ;  figuring  to  that  its  con- 
ceptions; colouring  the  resolutions  that  reason  sternly  en- 
graves; maintaining  the  flow  and  continuity  of  thought  by 
the  succession  of  her  semblances.  It  does  not  represent 
reason  as  a  sort  of  recluse  faculty,  prosaically  bigotted  and 
intent  upon  its  surly  drift  of  drudgery;  but  as  moving  with 
imagination  ever  in  its  train,  active  even  though  latent  in 
her  agency ;  having  its  progressive  developments  illumin- 
ated by  her;  and  a  scenic  effect  given  by  her  to  all  its  po- 
sitions. In  every  operation  of  intellect  exists  this  figurative 
agency;  and  the  celestial  faculty  of  which  I  speak  min- 
gles in  all  the  conceptions  and  elicitings  of  the  severest  lo- 
gician— however,  in  the  apparent  tenor  of  his  mind,  he  may 
be  the  very  antithesis  of  all  that  is  i  naginative.  In  im- 
agination the  intellectual  Philosopher  discerns  the  raptur- 
ous argument  of  immortality,  the  testimonial  of  divine  de- 
scent, and  in  its  vivid  versatility  and  infinite  picturings  the 
sublimest  analogies  of  eternity.  It  lights  the  star  of  hope; 
and  at  its  benignant  visitations  visions  of  happy  vicissitude 
dawn  upon  our  hearts.  It  is  not,  however,  in  its  tender 
offices  as  the  alluring  spirit  of  cheerfulness  and  consolation 
that  we  are  taught  to  regard  it  with  the  deepest  interest;  but 
as  it  elates  us  above  the  pressure  of  cumbrous  mortality,  and 
ever  opens  the  prison  of  reality,  it  seems  to  be  the  emblem 
of  Divinity — a  herald  from  the  skies  of  a  destiny  beyond 
the  frontiers  of  sense — connecting  us  in  its  ascension  upon 
its  high  themes,  with  the  asylum  of  perpetual  quiet  and  un- 
tiring delight — encouraging  and  dignifying  us  with  the  as- 
surance of  our  immortal  consecration.  Philosophy,  as  now 
mitigated,  traces  imagination  through  all  these  influences 
and  verifies  all  these  indications  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking,  dwelling  on  the  fancy's  spiritual  power  and  ethe- 
rial  creations,  and  seeing  in  its  scope  and  supremacy  the 
seraphic  signet  of  Heaven.  It  marks,  however,  the  guardi- 
an rights  of  reason  over  it,  and  the  salutary  discipline  that 
must  sober  its  attire  and  restrain  its  range.  It  does  not 
hold  it  up  for  your  admiration  and  delusion  in  its  gorgeous 
sorcery;  or  with  its  fantastic  plu  nige  as  a  bird  of  Paradise; 
nor  in  its  indolent  dreamy  sauntering;  nor  would  it  have 
you  court  the  shades  that  it  casts  upon  the  human  energies 
in  morbid  fantasies  and  scowling  perversions  and  discontent, 


12  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION. 

But  the  Philosophy  of  mind  views  imagination  and  cele- 
brates it  as  Useful  in  its  ennohled  aspects,  in  its  intellectual 
alliance,  its  cheering  illustration,  its  embassies  of  hop* 
and  inspiration ;  while  from  the  hallowed  heights  to  which 
imagination  carries  us,  Philosophy  elicits  the  glorious  in- 
ferences of  our  nature,  and  proudly  claims  the  fancy's  min- 
istry as  auxiliary  of  our  reason  and  the  missionary  of  hea- 
ven. 

Memory,  too,  who  in  all  her  suggestions  proclaims  the 
triumph  of  mind  over  time,  and  in  her  temple  of  images 
spiritualizes  all  experience,  and  shows  that  our  life  is  es- 
sentially intellectual,  though  not,  as  skeptics  have  it,  ideal — 
is  a  wide  theme  for  intellectual  Philosophy.  It  exhibits 
memory  as  one  of  the  dependancies  of  imagination;  in  th* 
spectacles  it  invokes  exercising  a  power  akin  to  it,  and,  in- 
deed, having  imagination  to  confirm  and  vivify  the  scenes  it 
awakens.  By  Philosophy  memory  is  presented  to  us  in  all 
her  varied  recurrences,  as  the  field  of  our  sorrow  where 
she  opens  her  solemn  receptacles  ;  or  as  she  leads  us  into 
her  halls  of  regulated  cheerfulness,  gay  hospitality  and 
nimble  wit ;  as  she  breathes  around  us  the  familiar  air  of 
our  domestic  life  and  lire-side  comforts,  though  near  theru- 
fned  hearth  and  amid  our  desolate  reality;  or  as  she  revives 
i)iQ  friends  who  have  long  lain  in  the  tranquil  depths  of  our 
hearts,  and  restores  the  sweet  converse  and  buoyant  activity 
now  absorbed  by  the  grave:  or  as  she  unveils  the  haunts 
of  early  days  when  the  world  lay  before  us  in  all  its  speci- 
ous perspective,  and  keeping  the  scene  yet  bright  with  the 
joyous  sun  that  won  our  youthful  hours  :  or  as  she  presents 
remorse  in  all  its  bitter  life  and  rankling  vigor  still  solicit- 
ously sustained  by  memory,  and  still  struggling  to  escape 
the  dungeon  she  knows  full  well  to  guard.  Through  scenes 
and  alternations  like  these  our  modern  intellectual  Philoso- 
phy has  occasion  to  mark  the  memory;  to  learn  her  power 
and  argue  her  temperament  and  her  relations,  while  it  illus- 
trates her  high  office  and  incessant  agency  in  all  the  men- 
tal operations,  all  the  deductions  of  judgment,  and  the  ef- 
ficiency  of  pure  reason. 

It  is  not  with  mere  logical  tenacity,  and  heartless  ab* 
Btrs  iion,  but  with  an  edifying  and  a  moral  grace  that  Iiir 
tellectual  Philosophy  explores  and  details  our  mental  pow^ 
ers  and  peculiarities;  shedding  on  the  subject  an  endearing 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  13 

unction.  From  this  spirit  of  modern  Philosophy  it  is,  that 
we  have  the  embellished  logic  and  eloquent  suavity  of  Stew- 
art; the  manly  decomposition  and  lucid  discursiveness  of 
Reid;  the  decided  diction  and  resistless  analysis  of  Brown; 
all  of  whom,  with  the  rich  resources  of  erudition,  have  pur- 
sued their  science  without  obsequious  faith  in  previous 
systems,  and  full  of  the  intrepidity  of  true  Philosophical 
scrutiny. 

Our  intellectual  Philosophy  arrests,  too,  subtile  &  evan- 
escent genius.  It  finds  it  to  be  no  substantive  endowment 
and  to  have  no  prerogative  exemption  from  the  rules  of  the 
ordinary  faculties  of  the  mind;  but  that  in  all  its  lightning 
glance,  its  prompt  responsiveness,  and  brilliant  rapidity,  it 
is  but  an  intellectual  vigor  quickened  to  a  livelier  measure, 
and  an  imagination  more  luminous  and  alert.  It  is  not  an 
intuitively  transcendant  faculty,  a  species  of  inspiration; 
but  the  regular  action  of  the  common  mind  in  splendid  vigi- 
lance and  towering  efficiency.  The  moral  we  thence  educe 
is  that  vagrancy  is  neither  the  beauty,  nor  the  worthy  habit 
of  genius,  as  is  the  abandoned  idea  so  flattering  to  vanity 
and  inertness,  into  which  too  many  have  been  betrayed,  who 
have  the  elastic  aptitudes  of  genius.  Irregularity  is  not  its 
attribute,  and  no  genial  accompaniment;  and  its  highest 
honors  are  not  to  be  won  in  devious  paths,  and  moods  of 
remissness.  Order  is  its  appropriate  law — -its  most  useful 
sphere — its  graceful  vestment. 

Let  us  then  admire  and  cherish  the  Philosophy  of  the 
human  mind  as  a  system  of  self-knowledge  ;  a  revelation  of 
our  mental  grandeur  and  real  worth;  tendering  us  the  deep- 
est enjoyments  of  thought  and  winning  us  to  the  most  digni- 
fied ambition;  while  it  instils  the  lesson  of  our  infirmities 
and  holds  its  lamp  to  the  dangers  that  lurk  in  ourselves  ; 
to  the  engrossing  power  of  habit ;  to  the  seductive  vice  of  a 
sinister  imagination  ;  to  the  stupor  and  abjectness  that  await 
the  neglected  intellect.  Duly  noting  the  tendencies  and  the 
imperfection  of  our  faculties,  &  appreciating  their  utility,  it 
vindicates  the  cause  of  science,  and  the  cultivation  of  all  our 
powers  to  the  tempered  pleasures  of  reason  and  instructed 
fancy.  It  does  not  lament  that  the  progress  of  education 
lias  given  a  limited  monarchy  to  the  imagination,  and  inter- 
dicted her  riotous  exuberancies  ;  and  with  logical  sobriety 
narrowed  her  excursions  to  the  bounds  of  scientific  decorums 


/ 


14  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION. 

and  in  proper  accordance  with  our  mental  advancement  and 
social  institutions,  placed  her  under  the  more  positive  dis- 
cipline of  truth. 

If  imagination  can  no  longer  overshadow  us  with  her 
superstitious  mystery,  and  find  her  ominous  phantasms  in 
exhibitions  which  science  now  has  approached  and  made  the 
obedient  examples  of  her  own  laws;  if  her  stupendous  en- 
ormities, her  dazzling  fallacies  are  no  more;  we  have  a  hap- 
py equivalent  in  her  chastened  vigor,  her  temperate  sug- 
gestions, impressive  because  they  carry  no  defiance  to  rea- 
son and  consistency;  the  solemn  silence  of  her  pathos  ;  her 
sportive  throng  of  fine  wit  and  gay  intelligence. 

Amidst  the  gladness  of  cultivation  we  may  well  dis- 
pense with  the  frowning  Scandinavian  grandeur  and  the 

is  splendor  of  oriental  redundancies;  and  we  have  a 
surer  and  a  deeper  pleasure  from  the  Italian  charms,  the 
velvet  lawns,  and  roseate  precision,  of  cultivated  imagina* 
iion,  even  with  all  the  classical  retrenchments  it  may  have 
undergone. 

Philosophy  and  the  genius  of  our  advanced  science,  in- 
culcate the  sense  of  the  moral  with  that  of  the  natural  beau- 
ties; they  shade  the  landscape  with  instructive  thought,  or 
augment  its  lustre  with  enlivening  associations;  thus  make- 
tug  nature  the  text  of  mind;  seeing  in  it  the  informing  wis- 
dom of  a  higher  sphere  as  well  as  the  resources  of  human 
improvement. 

I  have  dwelt  thus  long,  gentlemen,  on  this  department 
of  refined  learning,  because  it  seems  to  be  more  immediate- 

<.%t?d  to  those  abstract  exercises  in  which  your  societies 
delight;  and  as  it  holds  the  rank  of  a  reigning  power  in  the 
contemplation  of  all  that  science,  and  that  wealth  of learn- 

wh'vdi  the  mind  that  is  its  subject  has  explored  and 
created.  With  you  it  must  be  of  direct  and  cardinal  inter- 
est isi  your  daily  suit  at  the  great  shrine  of  thought — taught 
truly  to  look  at  your  minds  as  the  sources  of  all  your  advan- 

■■>  the  agents  of  all  your  future  usefulness  and  legitimate 
renown. 

It  is  not,  gentlemen,  merely  in  reference  to  the  com- 

of  life,  or  the  increased  resources  of  society  or  of  gov- 
ernments that  I  would  extol  the  progress?  and  have  you  re- 
idancy  of  learning  and  science.       But  it  is 
for  their  high  moral  ehects.  their  exaltation  of  the  tone  and 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  15 

industry  of  the  public  mind,  that  I  would  greet  their  marclu 
So  far  as  they  inspire  intellectual  courage,  energy  of  judg- 
ment, persevering  inventiveness,  and  the  ambition  for  the 
sovereignty  of  mind,  and  shed  a  thoughtful  tranquility  up* 
on  society,  and  sublimate  the  standard  of  justice;  learning 
and  science  bless  the  earth  and  honor  heaven.  To  instil 
and  produce  all  this  is  their  benignant  consummation,  how- 
ever nobly  even  their  sensible  and  immediate  results  may 
gladden  and  embellish  humanity. 

While  science  deals  with  her  strict  realities  and  learn- 
ing notes  her  labors,  governs  her  progress  and  supplies  her 
materials,  literature  opens  her  recreations  and  hospitable 
bowers  to  the  kindly  taste,  and  purified  sensibilities.  Paci- 
fying our  perverse  temperament  with  her  balmy  persuasion, 
her  melodies  elate  the  declining  energies  and  excite  the  con- 
scious dignity  ;  her  inviting  verdure  arrests  us  in  the  fervid 
course  and  dusty  paths  of  business,  assuaging  us  to  thought 
and  sympathy;  her  pensive  dews  and  sunny  haunts  nour- 
ish and  brighten  the  spirit  of  the  morbid,  the  disappointed, 
and  the  sorrowing. 

This  period  is  most  fruitful  of  literature,  and  boldly 
marked  by  the  enterprize  of  talent. 

It  is  not  the  beauties  of  a  mere  flower-garden — the 
mere  horticulture  of  genius — that  our  literature  presents  ; 
but  it  offers  us  a  substantial  product  for  grave  edification, 
as  well  as  its  gay  efflorescence  to  enliven  our  leisure.  Eve- 
ry species  of  talent  has  its  field  and  its  incentive,  and  en- 
joys the  munificent  freedom  of  the  literary  republic.  It  is 
not  the  course  of  modern  genius  to  luxuriate  and  waste  its 
fragrance  in  solitude;  but  it  may  be  said  that  the  spirit  of 
our  times  invites  it  to  exhibit,  diffuse,  and  record  itself: 
and  hence  the  varied  and  teeming  contributions  to  our  liter- 
ary mass.  It  would  be  idle  to  say  that  all  this  coinage  has 
the  stamp  of  genius,  or  is  the  chastened  "efflux  divine"  of 
salutary  talent.  In  the  productions  of  our  motley  intellect 
there  is  much  of  truant  imagination,  perverse  conceit,  and 
romantic  froth,  and  every  variety  of  strange  obliquity.  We 
have  all  the  quaint  diversities  and  affected  phases  of  the 
literary  creation,  from  the  most  shadowy  fantasies  and 
hideous  majesty,  to  the  primly  sedate  &  scrupulously  shorn, 
illustration,  witli  the  due  concord  of  sentences  and  syllables, 
to  suit  the  balanced  propriety  of  the  style  j  and  then  a  fu* 


16  SECOND    ANNUAL    OttATlOtf. 

ncrcal  procession  of  stalking  ideas  contrasted  by  another 
style  of  measured  and  emphatic  gait,  with  its  proportion  of" 
sententious  condiments;  and  then  we  are  aroused  by  the  ab- 
rupt and  startling,  or  quickened  by  the  electric  style,  cover- 
ing us  with  epigrammatic  Hashes. 

We  have,  however,  a  vast  proportion  of  writing  sig- 
nalized by  strenuous  thought  and  judicious  research,  and 
useful  and  exact  discrimination;  or  vivid  with  the  boldest 
conceptions,  and  captivating  with  the  most  terse  and  delight- 
ful originality. 

There  is  indeed,  abroad  in  the  literature  of  the  day, 
a  self-sustaining  style  and  reach  of  thought;  a  talent,  that, 
while  it  reveres,  as  it  is  right  they  should  be  cherished,  tin* 
works  of  Greek  or  Roman  fame;  yet  looks,  by  the  standard 
of  that  taste  which  those -authorities  sanction  and  illustrate, 
to  its  own  resources;  and  revolts  at  servility  to  models, 
however  they  may  be  crowned  with  classical  honors  when- 
ever they  are  held  up  as  absolutely  imperative,  and  enforc- 
ed with  a  sort  of  monarchical  rule  upon  the  energies  of  the 
reason,  or  of  the  fancy. 

The  consecrated  galleries  of  oft-quoted  metaphors  and 
classical  imagery  and  sentiment,  are  not  now  again  and 
again  recurred  to  for  the  decorations  of  composition  ;  but, 
leaving  all  the  beautiful  rhetorical  sculpture  of  ancient  or 
modern  classics,  and  courting  only  the  taste  and  spirit  they 
elucidate,  men  choose  to  express  their  thoughts  and  diffuse 
the  warmth  of  their  themes,  by  pictures  which  their  own 
living  fancies  raise,  and  by  vigorous  allusions  fresh  and 
peculiar.  This  originality  is  often  affected  and  leads  to  re- 
mote and  ambitious  research  to  be  novel ;  and  the  hard 
wrought  fabric  in  the  result,  is  as  unwelcome  as  must  b* 
any  elaborate  singularity  put  in  place  of  the  spontaneous 
grace  of  nature.  Sometimes  this  passion  of  originality 
bounds  into  the  most  vehement  extravagancies;  often  ar- 
rays its  dreary  or  its  gaudy  novelties  and  tinsel  jewelry  as 
the  pageant  of  fancy's  imperial  enchantments  ;  and  often 
mistakes  the  most  grotesque  visions  for  the  conceptions  of 
melancholy  sublimity.  With  all  the  deviousness,  however, 
of  this  temperament,  we  cannot  but  value  the  independence, 
it  involves,  that  disclaims  implicit  subserviency  to  the  pre- 
cedents of  earlier  literature,  and  commends  their  cultivation 
only  to  regulate  the  liberties  of  our  fancy;  and  thus  imbued. 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION*  17 

bids  us  rely  upon  our  own  views  for  the  communication  of 
our  thoughts,  sending  us  abroad  into  the  natural  and  moral 
world  for  illustration  and  ornament.  Thus  prepared,  it  is 
thither  we  should  go  for  the  tissues  of  imagination,  and  not 
refer  ourselves,  as  obsequious  retainers  of  ancient  or  modern 
classics,  to  their  repositories  of  fancy  or  of  thought.  It  is 
better,  sometimes,  to  be  annoyed  with  insipid  affectation ; 
to  bear  the  penalty  of  having  all  nature  sometimes  eclipsed 
by  some  imposing  absurdity,  and  all  taste  sunk  in  a  depth 
of  novel  horrors,  than  to  have  the  alertness  of  the  general 
mind  daunted,  and  its  powers  levelled  to  tame  correctness 
and  timid  research,  and  stinted  diction,  and  to  pall  on  the  re- 
petition of  oft- spread  literary  repasts.  The  spirit  of  letters 
acknowledges  no  vassalage  to  precedents;  no  monopolies  of 
excellence  in  any  age  or  people. 

To  correct,  too,  the  digressions  of  literary  talent,  and 
rebuke  the  inordinate  inventiveness  of  literary  aspirants  and 
their  false  ideality,  we  have  our  wholesome  Senate  and  Ju- 
diciary of  Reviewers;  with  the  powers  of  a  concentrated  so- 
vereignty as  keepers  of  the  literary  seals,  and  guardians  of 
the  credentials  of  the  literary  republic;  and  as  the  standard- 
bearers  of  taste  asserting  its  dictates  and  keeping  immacu- 
late its  statutes.  They  rally  the  intellect  and  challenge  the 
genius  and  reflect  the  various  mind  of  the  country.  Our 
United  States  can  now  boast  two  of  these  mirrors  of  the 
passing  literature  and  science;  one  the  converging  point  of 
our  Northern  lights,  and  the  other  catching  the  radiance 
of  our  Southern  talent.  Exercising  as  they  do,  an  imperi- 
al sway  in  the  literary  sphere,  it  may  be  that  undue  senti- 
ments are  often  indulged  and  a  corrosive  criticism  and  des- 
potic denunciation.  But  these  ungracious  instances  of  sur- 
ly rebuke  are  rare,  and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  this 
country,  especially,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  to  our  intel- 
lectual honour,  (and  thence  in  a  great  degree  to  our  political 
dignity)  that  these  literary  folds  should  exist  within  which 
American  intellect  may  be  gathered.  Open  to  all  varieties 
of  knowledge,  each  niche  of  science  or  letters  is  there  at- 
tractive with  all  the  enticements  of  honourable  fame,  and 
the  assurance  of  the  just  regards  and  rewards  of  public 
opinion.  They  elicit  the  fruits  of  private  study,  and  turn 
to  a  social  good  the  researches  that  would  otherwise  have 
slept  in  obscurity,  and  embody  useful  thoughts  that  might 

3 


18  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION, 

else  have  been  lavished  on  the  speculative  retirement  of  the 
student.  It  is  not  only  as  mere  censors  or  critical  anatom- 
ists, or  as  holding  the  ensign  of  correct  taste,  that  these 
literary  marshals  are  useful;  but  chiefly  so  as  they  afford  a 
home  to  our  genius  and  its  tributes,  a  repository  to  the  toils 
of  our  intellectual  labourers.  It  is  not  in  ascertaining  the 
equilibrium  of  styles,  or  the  symmetry  of  sentences,  or  in 
scanning  and  weighing  words,  that  reviewers  now  busy 
themselves;  but  the  subject  and  all  its  riches  and  depend- 
ancies  are  explored,  its  elements  developed,  its  various 
systems  canvassed — and  often  its  minutest  principles  and 
particulars  abstracted  and  elucidated.  A  review  being  thus 
a  discussion  of  the  sense  and  merits  of  the  subject,  the  writer 
must  be  imbued  with  its  learning,  invigorated  with  its  spirit, 
and  graced  with  all  its  accomplishments.  It  is  true  that 
sometimes,  though  seldom,  pretenders,  in  the  consequential 
attire  of  proficients,  usurp  in  these  works  the  functions  of 
the  endowed,  and  in  a  style  of  stately  exposition,  and  with 
a  varnished  surface  of  wisdom  and  erudition,  challenge  re- 
spect by  the  authoritative  frown  of  their  strictures.  But 
when  this  happens,  these  magisterial  intruders  are  in  turn 
put  to  the  question,  and  themselves  tested  by  the  equal  and 
infallible  principles  of  taste  and  sounddisquisition. 

It  is,  gentlemen,  because  the  establishment  of  these 
literary  tribunals  in  our  country  argues  and  substantiates 
our  intellectual  independence,  that  I  have  so  much  dwelt 
upon  their  influence  and  their  dignity.  They  are  the  evi- 
dences of  our  literary  emancipation  as  well  as  of  our  litera- 
ry advancement — manifestos,  and  testimonials  too,  that  we 
may  of  right  sit  in  the  Congress  of  the  literary  republic  ; 
that  the  taste  and  intellect  of  our  country  has  not  remained 
in  the  ruggedness  of  our  early  mountains;  that  we  have 
lived  for  the  cultivation  of  our  minds  as  well  as  of  our  fields 
and  our  commerce.  They  show  that  the  American  mind 
no  longer  acknowledges  Edinburgh  or  London  as  its  seat 
of  Government,  or  figures  tlie  intellectual  throne  of  the  liter- 
ary realm  in  England  or  in  Scotland.  We  need  no  longer 
delay  welcoming  our  productions  until  they  shall  have 
been  authenticated  by  the  reluctant  and  gracious  seal  of  En- 
gl)ah  or  Scotch  approval.  We  throw  off  our  colonial  sub- 
serviency to  a  foreign  literary  stamp-act,  and  thinking  and 
feeling  for  ourselves,  we  proclaim  that  as  learning  and  taste 


SBCQND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  1& 

have  no  Royal  way,  so  all  men  may  assert  the  right  of  liter- 
ary judgment,  whose  studies  have  yielded  them  the  elegant 
knowledge  and  refined  tact  to  relish  the  excellencies  and 
detect  the  errors  of  literary  productions.  In  our  reviews, 
as  on  Capitoline  eminences,  we  have  erected  these  stand- 
ards of  independent  opinion;  and  they  preserve  and  em- 
body that  spirit  of  free  judgment,  and  conscious  mental 
power.  While  they  are  the  registry  of  our  learning,  and 
the  counsellors  of  our  taste,  these  reviews  are  themselves 
the  proof  that  letters  have  here  been  installed,  and  that  we 
do  not  nourish  our  social  prosperity  and  sustain  our  civil 
life  merely  from  the  resources  of  untutored  sagacity  and 
desultory  shrewdness. 

Keeping,  too,  before  us  the  progressive  science  and 
literature  of  Europe,  while  our  reviews  remonstrate  with 
foreign  prejudice  and  maintain  the  integrity  of  our  intellec- 
tual fame,  they  recount  the  proofs  of  foreign  excellence  and 
improve  us  with  foreign  contributions.  And  thus  they  re- 
buke and  discourage  that  vanity  which  pre-eminent  politi- 
cal privileges  and  rapid  national  advancement  tend  to  in- 
fuse into  communities  $o  distinguished  in  these  respects  as 
ours  is.  Looking  at  our  sudden  and  solid  growth,  and  our 
conspicuous  rank  among  the  states  of  the  world,  we  are  too 
apt  to  ascribe  our  signal  speed  to  sovereign  genius;  lifting 
us  above,  or  making  a  breach  through,  the  ordinary  difficul- 
ties of  social  improvement  and  aggrandizement,  and  carry- 
ing us  with  a  magical  rapidity  to  our  actual  illustrious  sum- 
mit. This  pernicious  conceit  of  peculiar  endowment  has 
sometimes  insinuated  itself  into  our  political  views  and  sen- 
timents, and  conduces  to  bias  us  in  our  literary  estimate  of 
ourselves  and  others.  It  is  a  republican  weakness;  and  we 
cannot  expect  to  be  entirely  free  from  it.  Its  best  correc- 
tion is  in  the  diffusion  of  sound  knowledge,  and,  where  ex- 
tensive study  otherwise  is  not  practicable,  in  the  exposi- 
tions and  contrasts  which  reviews  present  of  the  foreign  in- 
tellect and  our  own.  We  shall  thus  be  taught  that  it  is  to  no 
peculiar  native  excellence,  to  no  anticipating  talent  or  fore- 
stalling genius,  to  no  wider  horizon  of  the  American  mind, 
that  our  sudden  national  stature  is  to  be  attributed;  that  it 
is  only  because  the  mind  has  here  its  free  scope  and  liberal 
charter  and  the  soul  is  not  darkened  by  an  imperious  bigot- 
ry and  locked  up  in  any  prescribed  creed,  and  that  poiiti- 


20  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION. 

cal  power  is  but  the  force  of  the  public  will,  and  the  con- 
centration  of  the  general  opinion,  that  these  states,  upon  a 
soil  of  such  varied  bounty,  and  long  in  the  profitable  calm 
of  political  peace,  have  reached  so  quickly  so  brilliant  a 
dignity. 

The  human  mind  was  formed  to  improve  the  elements 
that  the  material  and  social  worlds  present,  and  to  enrich 
and  enliven  the  probation  we  have  to  toil  through.  With 
an  equal  range,  and  an  equally  propitious  view  of  Heaven, 
It  will  in  all  periods  carry  us  to  the  same  consummations; 
dispensing  the  same  benefits  and  penetrating  with  the  same 
intensity  of  purpose,  and  urging  its  achievements  with- the 
same  lofty  and  unceasing  impulse  to  the  points  of  the  same 
glorious  industry. 

Wliile  we  have  much  to  congratulate,  rather  than  to 
jpraise  ourselves  for,  we  have  much  yet  to  acquire,  which 
the  populousness,  wealth,  and  leisure  of  other  countries 
have  given  them  facilities  for  attaining,  and  that  in  this  our 
laborious  national  youth  we  cannot  be  expected  to  have 
acquired.  We  keep  parallel  however,  with  the  literary 
spirit  of  foreign  countries.  In  them,  as  with  us,  diversified 
in  character  and  object  as  are  literary  efforts,  the  adventu- 
rous zeal  of  letters  is  kept  up  by  the  busy  effusion  of  mind. 
The  world  at  large  has  its  attention  won  to  letters,  and, 
occupied  with  the  topic,  learns  to  seek  the  resort  for  its 
leisure  from  curiosity  or  for  instruction.  And  if  many  works 
appear,  which  are  not  models  of  immortality,  the  public 
taste  under  the  admonitions  of  private  or  public  criticism, 
soon  gives  them  a  becoming  rank. 

In  no  way  can  the  general  taste  be  purified,  and  the 
public  feeling  be  worthily  directed  so  effectually;  as  by  en- 
gaging the  imagination  of  the  reading  community,  and  mak- 
ing the  fancy  a  mediator  with  the  heart — to  charm  the  sym- 
pathies from  their  indolence,  and  temper  it  to  the  sense  of 
the  virtuous  and  the  useful.  And  this  may  indeed  be  said 
to  be  the  age  of  ingenuous  and  lofty  fancy,  of  interesting  and 
impressive  fiction. 

While  there  abounds  in  all  departments  of  literature, 
in  the  aspect  of  real  life  or  serious  speculation,  a  fund  of 
beautiful  descant  and  engaging  narrative,  Imagination  in 
her  novels  and  her  poems  has  seldom  been  so  active,  to 
such  agreeable  and  magnificent  results. 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  21 

It  was  with  the  pleasures  of  fancy  that  letters  entered 
the  world  anew  after  their  feudal  suppression.  The  morn- 
ing of  literature  broke  to  the  melody  of  poetry;  and  the 
progress  of  letters  has  ever  had  its  harmonious  accompani- 
ment. At  first  it  issued  in  the  gay  dalliance,  and  voluptu- 
ous exuberance,  suited  to  the  gallant  infatuation  of  the  cru- 
sade, and  to  lull  the  rugged  spirits  of  the  age,  and  sustain 
the  martial  fascinations  and  the  religious  dreams  of  Pales- 
tine. Advancing  with  the  learning  and  taste  of  the  period, 
its  genius  was  courted  in  tho.se  classical  prototypes  in  which 
all  taste  was  enshrined,  and  livid  in  its  fresh  enduring 
charms — authenticated  as  are  those  classical  memorials,  by 
unchanging  principles  of  nature  to  every  age,  and  the  cher- 
ished tests  and  examples  in  every  reign  of  taste.  Not  then, 
as  before,  did  only  scholastic  disquisition  assume,  in  pe- 
dantic fashion,  the  robes  of  verse ;  but  poesy  expatiated 
over  all  that  was  tender,  and  votive,  and  exulting.  To  our 
latter  times  the  song  of  imagination  lias  continued ;  and  in 
these  it  has  been  prodigal  of  its  harmony  in  all  the  orders 
of  its  nobility,  the  sublime  aspiration — the  superb  action  of 
dignified  epic — tuneful  lyrics — the  gloomy  grandeur  and 
melancholy  desultoriness  and  discontent  of  genius — gay 
wit  and  racy  satire. 

No  one  will  say  at  this  day,  after  poetry  has  illustrated 
so  many  departments  of  learning  and  taste,  that  its  plea- 
sures are  proper  only  for  the  languid  idler,  or  the  effemin- 
ate votary  of  mere  dainty  literature.  Its  stirring  appeals, 
its  high  incantations,  the  scenes  it  summons  from  the  vast 
deep  of  imagination,  the  censure  it  kindles  for  the  vices  of 
men,  and  the  stern  satire  it  compounds  for  their  frivolities,  its 
cogent  exhortation,  its  mellowing  narratives  and  conquer- 
ing solicitations,  cannot  but  elate,  improve,  and  rule  every 
lover  of  tasteful  delicacy  and  moral  beauty.  Much  of  wise 
views  of  man  is  invested  in  the  amiable  phrase  of  pcetry, 
and  truths  of  profound  practical  moment  are  wreathed  with 
its  agreeable  allusions,  and  enforced  in  its  solemn  harmonies. 
Its  symphonies  seem  suited  to  the  beauties  of  the  moral 
world,  as  well  as  they  accord  with  those  of  nature;  and  it 
is  by  the  charm  of  this  association  that  the  student  dwells 
with  delight  on  the  supreme  moral  speculations  that  are  the 
burden  of  poetry;  on  the  pictures  that  throb  with  poetic 
pulsation,  of  the  passions  and  the  sorrows  of  men;  his  chiv- 


22  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION. 

alrous  sacrifices;  his  extravagancies  and  his  sufferings — on 
the  unambitious  retirement  whose  tranquil  dignity  and  in- 
genuous content,  poetry  explores  in  its  seclusion  from  the 
world's  busy  throng  and  interested  strife. 

Poetry  is  not  the  mere  toy  of  intellect,  to  beguile  our 
leisure  with  a  trivial  concord  of  sweet  sounds,  a  spectacle 
of  harmonious  adjustment,  and  of  the  curious  unison  of 
sound  and  sense,  worthy  only  to  speed  the  perfume  of  ob- 
sequious flattery,  or  the  fervour  of  amatory  transports;  but 
it  is  honoured  as  the  language  of  a  refined  majesty;  of  the 
imagination  in  her  purest  tendencies — the  voice  of  the  heart 
in  its  charity  and  magnanimity — the  impressive  elegance  of 
morals,  and  the  sublime  ornament  of  wisdom  itself. 

With  all  these  engaging  beauties  literary  pleasures 
have  come  largely  in  vogue,  and  are  the  habitual  enjoy- 
ment of  great  portions  of  the  civilized  communities  of  our 
age.  This  country  particularly  seems  destined  to  be  en- 
listed most  loyally  in  the  train  of  literature.  The  manly 
liberty  which  we  so  peculiarly  enjoy  is  the  fit  vehicle 
of  letters,  while  they  in  turn  temper  and  sustain  our  liber- 
ties. Man  must  be  enticed  within  the  orbit  of  peace,  and 
lured  to  sedate  sympathies,  and  the  ever-monitory  sense  of 
right.  The  paths  of  social  life  must  pass  through  scenes 
and  be  bordered  with  resources  that  engage  his  mind  and 
involve  his  better  feelings;  or  else  he  will  soon  range  into 
the  wilds  of  his  selfish  nature.  It  is  only  the  palliative 
spirit  of  letters  that  can  effectually  mitigate  the  tumultuous 
propensities  of  men;  and  general  intelligence  and  habitual 
reading  compose  the  sure  pledge  of  order  in  a  republic. 

By  the  pressure  of  despotic  government  it  is  true  that 
a  stupid  calm,  an  arbitrary  peace,  may  be  obtained;  but  the 
pressure  must  be  unabated  and  cruelty  must  watch  it;  and 
often  the  effervescence  of  nature,  independence,  is  active 
under  the  iron  weight,  and  explodes  the  best  forged  schemes 
of  despotic  rule. 

It  is  only  where  the  public  mind  is  captivated  by  the 
high  considerations  of  the  social  weal;  where  its  opinions 
assist  in  the  adjustments  of  right  and  power,  of  ascendan- 
cy and  submissiveness;  that  the  fruitful  peace  of  a  commu- 
nity is  ensured.  But  the  tone  of  that  public  mind  must  be 
mellowed  to  gentle  aims;  the  public  intellect  must  be  train- 
ed to  haunts  of  useful  occupation,  before  it  can  be  won  to 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  23 

the  enactments  of  social  order.  To  engage  the  attention  is 
the  essential  preliminary  to  the  improvement  of  the  feelings, 
and  to  allure  the  thought  to  innocent  themes  is  the  only  re- 
course for  dislodging  seditious  passions.  If  we  attain  but 
the  negative  effect  of  excluding  unworthy  resolutions  and 
vicious  conceptions  from  the  mass  of  the  world,  we  should 
be  pleased  with  the  consummation;  but  knowledge  diffused, 
the  mind  habitually  filled  with  objects  for  reflection  or  for 
its  industry,  and  with  pacific  images,  leads  to  positive  en- 
joyment and  useful  products.  It  is  the  nature  of  contem- 
plation itself  to  fertilize  as  well  as  tranquilize  the  intellect; 
and  of  even  the  faintest  instruction  to  nurture  the  faculties 
and  enamour  the  mind  of  the  pursuit. 

In  a  republican  government,  however,  it  is  not  enough 
to  estrange  the  public  thought  from  inordinate  objects,  and 
decoy  or  divert  the  public  taste  from  inflamed  indulgences; 
but  the  mind  must  actively  deal  with  healthful  labours,  and 
have  its  riches  increased,  its  capacities  enlarged  and  quick- 
ened, and  the  sensibilities  must  turn  to  objects  of  positive, 
energetic  excellence.  It  is  the  instructed,  the  assenting 
mind  of  the  people  that  is  the  safeguard  of  the  republic,  the 
life  of  its  power. 

It  is  idle  to  proclaim  mere  hollow  abstract  political 
equality;  the  boast  is  a  pernicious  delusion — a  mere  theo- 
retical grace  over  actual  licentiousness  and  coarse  arrogance 
and  obtrusiveness.  We  must  have  more  than  that  measure 
of  equality  to  make  our  liberty  either  useful  or  glorious, 
or  our  republic  perpe  ual.  Without  that  which  may  en- 
surer  to  us  our  civil  liberty — the  essential  end  of  all  political 
liberty — political  liberty  is  but  a  noisy  privilege  and  a  spe- 
cious idea.  Such  is  the  dominant  tendency  of  talent,  the 
imposing  strength  of  knowledge,  that  where  intelligence 
is  not  distributed  with  proportional  equ?Jity,  and  the  mind 
of  the  mass  of  the  people  is  in  dark  contrast  with  that  of 
the  few  in  authority  or  without  it;  there  must  be  anarchy 
and  finally  debased  servility  in  the  ranks  of  the  ignorant. 
Such  must  be  the  inevitable  case  of  a  community  having 
political  power  to  administer;  national  interests  and  nation- 
al operations  to  observe;  and  momentous  civil  privileges 
under  their  direct  guardianship.  In  such  a  condition  of 
things,  intellectual  superiority  instigated  to  schemes  of  au- 
gust wickedness,  employing  either  the  deceitful  splendour 


24  SECOND    ANNUAL   ORATION. 

of  military  success,  or  the  eloquence  of  seductive  sophistry, 
and  the  pomp  and  art  of  diplomacy,  seeks,  not  the  innocent 
crown  of  mental  honours,  but  political  dominion  and  the 
prerogative  of  oppression. 

Hence  the  varied  annals,  I  had  almost  said  diaries,  of 
ancient  republics;  embarked  as  they  all  were  on  a  fluctuat- 
ing fate,  upon  the  fitful  temperament,  the  riotous  caprices 
of  an  ignorant  multitude.  These  republics  hovered  on  the 
uncertain  wave — now  in  the  calm  of  their  civic  lustre — and 
then  driven  in  the  implacable  tempest  of  public  passion. 
Look  to  those  periods  for  the  power  of  mind;  and  to  the 
sceptre  of  intellect  as  it  departed  from  one  to  another  class 
of  philosophers;  and  as  alternate  theories  gained  the  blind 
applause,  and  provoked  the  factious  zeal  of  the  people. 
These  were  not  factions  lighted  with  the  empyreal  flame; 
but  the  very  influence  of  these  men  of  mind,  the  royal  pre- 
eminence they  swayed,  shows  the  inferiority  of  the  obsequi- 
ous and  tractable  crowd. 

This  may  argue  the  majesty  of  mind;  but  it  indicates 
the  obscurity  of  the  intellect  that  could  yield  such  abject 
deference,  and  be  so  humbly  flexible,  to  the  humours  of 
those  artists  of  theories;  no  matter  whether  of  substantial 
wisdom,  or  of  painted  sophistry  and  sententious  conceits. 
It  is  not,  therefore,  to  be  understood,  that  when  antiquity 
is  extolled  for  its  exemplary  intellect — that  the  people  of 
antiquity  may  share  in  the  eulogy.  It  is  not  thus  with  our 
republic  and  our  people.  The  value  of  our  liberty  was 
measured  and  signalized  in  the  grievances  that  led  our 
early  pilgrims  to  the  sullen  solitudes  of  the  unconquered 
wilderness;  and  prompted  them,  even  for  such  a  refuge,  to 
yield  themselves  to  the  dark  perils  of  their  wayfaring;  but 
they  were  urged  by  the  free  winds  of  the  sea,  and  the  drea- 
ry spirit  of  the  storm  accorded  with  the  genius  of  their  own 
gloomy  energies.  The  necessities  of  early  settlements  with 
rigorous  impulse,  excited  invention  and  gave  action  to  the 
mind;  the  tenets  of  old  English  wisdom  were  treasured  to 
advance  social  order  and  personal  dignity;  while  the  sober 
joys  of  the  native  fire-side  consecrated  by  early  recollection 
brightened  the  bleak  retreat  of  the  stern  worshippers  of 
freedom.  The  scenery  around  them  was  the  memorial  of 
their  vicissitudes,  the  linage  of  their  quiet  liberty,  the  tablet 
of  their  political  attainments;  and  the  exhortation  to  value 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  25 

them.  Thus  trained  to  freedom,  and  observant  of  its  rights, 
this  country  was  ready  for  the  sovereign  iudependence  it 
achieved;  and  which  we  cherish  for  the  noble  principles 
that  incited  the  pursuit,  and  that  adorned  the  banner  ol  the 
contest.  But  there  is  no  genuine  efi.cacious  republicanism 
without  universal  education;  and  the  informed  and  temper- 
ed and  tenacious  sense  of  our  rights — the  equable  distribu- 
tion of  intellectual  power.  W  ith  such  qualification,  the 
American  people  will  stand  endued  with  a  celestial  ar- 
moury; their  liberty  will  have  a  guaranty  as  indissoluble 
as  mind  itself.  They  need  then  fear  no  insidious  mining 
of  their  privileges;  and  military  power,  with  all  her  I  reto- 
rian  guards,  her  victorious  plumage,  and  ostentatious  blan- 
dishments, shall  neither  over-awe  nor  seduce  them  while 
they  have  their  minds  as  their  entrenchments;  and  their 
wary  sense  of  their  dignity  for  the  sanctuary  of  their  liberty. 
With  a  diffusive  intelligence  regulating,  invigorating, 
warming,  and  exalting  all — then  and  then  only,  does  a 
permanent  and  harmonious  equality  and  a  cordial  and  in- 
fallible republicanism  exist. 

It  is  not  among  the  least  of  their  auspicious  results^ 
that  diffused  knowledge  and  general  habit  of  thinking,  tend 
to  keep  to  wholesome  principles  the  standard  of  eminence, 
in  social  life.  In  communities  thus  rectified,  and  alive  to 
all  undue  assumption  of  either  social  or  political  ascendan- 
cy, the  aristocracy  of  wealth  cannot  raise  itself  to  its  arro- 
gant pedestal;  and  "the  proud  man's  contumely"  is  recip- 
rocated with  the  dauntless  ridicule  and  intrepid  scorn  that 
soon  drives  it  back  to  the  retreat  of  its  paltry  spirit. 

In  a  country  where  political  inequality  is  unknown, 
and  where  the  only  inequality  of  obvious  note  and  sorest 
pressure,  is  that  of  fortune;  private  interest  inclines  indivi- 
duals to  a  subduing  deference  to  wealth;  and  pecuniary  re- 
sources inflate  the  successful  few  who  wear  the  order  of  the 
pecuniary  star.  Without  any  of  the  traditionary  graces 
and  the  artificial  brightness  of  lineage  that  attend  and  con- 
tent aristocracy  of  birth;  the  aristocracy  of  wealth  is  more 
baleful,  because  it  sedulously  aims  at  an  engrossing  promin- 
ency in  civil  life,  its  presumptuous  summit  and  only  hope  of 
distinction,  and  seeks  to  bribe  the  independence  of  the  pub- 
lic mind  by  the  fascinating  coinage  of  interest  and  the  mere 
metallic  virtues  of  its  condition.     When  that  independence 

4 


2G  SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION. 

is  once  gone,  and  the  golden  calf  has  established  its  wor- 
ship, republics  may  tremble  for  their  privileges  and  facul- 
ties; and  they  tremble  in  weakness  and  despair. 

What  began  in  puny  ambition  and  frivolous  arrogance 
ends  in  political  relaxation;  and  in  the  fatal  though  gradual 
lapse  of  civil  and  political  liberty. 

But  let  us  contemplate  the  prevalence  of  knowledge, 
and  the  reign  of  intellect,  in  a  relation  of  sacred  force  and 
profound  utility.  When  the  public  mind  is  thus  enlighten- 
ed, religious  liberty  in  celestial  expansion,  in  its  most  effec- 
tive sense,  descends  upon  a  community.  Then  is  announced 
the  principle,  cheered  and  hallowed  with  the  smile  of  Hea- 
ven, that  it  is  impious  to  torture  the  souls  and  wound  the 
hearts  of  men  to  engraft  upon  their  minds  a  particular  creed; 
but  that  the  feelings  are  to  be  composed  to  contemplation, 
and  the  intellect  left  to  be  refined  by  knowledge,  and  to 
know  Heaven  as  Heaven  shall  then,  lighted  with  all  its 
revelations,  reflect  itself  into  the  soul.  I  speak  not  of  the 
concession  of  a  mere  legal  toleration,  but  of  the  liberality 
which  disposes  individuals  to  defer  to  the  holy  rights  of 
religious  judgment,  and  presumes  not  to  intrude  on  the  com- 
munion, in  the  soul's  seclusion,  between  God  and  man ; 
which  acknowledges  the  Omnipotent  as  the  mind's  sole 
sovereign — the  avenger  of  his  indignities — and  does  not 
therefore  allow  trivial  man  to  come  a  halting  supplement 
in  aid  of  the  Divinity's  vindication.  It  is  not  enough  that 
the  infamous  fires  of  a  Smithfield  are  quenched;  that  the 
ashes  of  its  martyrs  have  long  been  cold;  that  the  law  has 
framed  no  rack  to  agonize  the  human  nerves  and  break 
down  the  human  judgment;  but  there  is  a  jealous  and  pro- 
voking malignity;  a  rancorous  love  of  authority,  that  con- 
vert the  human  heart  i  nto  a  hall  of  torture  and  a  den  of 
bitter  vengeance,  for  tb-3  dissentients  in  religion  from  our- 
selves; which  transfuses  its  poison  surely,  though  in  grovel- 
ing silence,  into  all  oui  concerns  and  relations  with  those 
who  cannot  goad  their  judgments  into  compulsive  accord 
with  our  own.  It  is  this  persecution,  insidious,  vigilant 
and  pervading,  that  embitters  the  heart  that  entertains  it; 
and  is  scarcely  less  injurious  for  being  unarmed  with  politi- 
cal sanctions;  for  such  a  spirit  seeks  the  opportunity  of  re- 
ligious monopoly,  and  glories  in  t\v>  prospect  of  having  the 
license  of  its  tyranny  written  in  characters  of  insatiate  hatred. 


SECOND    ANNUAL    ORATION.  27 

It  is  only  education,  of  generous  and  luminous  scope,  that 
can  subdue  this  inquisitorial  pride  of  opinion,  and  avert 
such  profane  usurpation  of  the  ro\  xlties  of  Heaven  for  the 
insignificant  interests  of  human  passion. 

Then  it  is  indeed  fit,  gentlemen,  that  in  the  religious 
light  of  these  holy  walls,  Ave  should  celebrate  the  excellen- 
cies of  literature  and  all  her  mitigating  power;  and  place  the 
pure  structure  of  refined  republicanism  under  the  auspices  of 
Heaven  itself.  It  is  the  pride  of  legitimate  learning  to  bring 
the  pursuits  of  literary  taste  into  persuasion  and  confirming 
concord  with  the  corrollaries  of  morals  and  the  injunctions 
of  religion.  And  religion  no  longer  folded  in  reverend 
austerity  and  mysterious  enigmas,  and  fostering  ecclesiasti- 
cal tyranny  in  saintly  dogmas,  shows  in  moral  colouring 
and  rational  transparancy  the  truth  of  hermessages,  and 
seals  them  with  the  convictions  of  judgment. 

In  your  condition,  gentlemen,  you  have  the  rich  con- 
course of  all  those  resources  and  all  that  utility,  and  beau- 
ty and  delight  of  which  I  ventured  my  desultory  rehearsal. 
To  you  is  signally  given  the  proud  privilege  of  intellectual 
improvement — the  opportunity  of  intellectual  sway.  Ac- 
cording to  peculiarities  of  talent  or  the  force  of  circumstan- 
ces, you  have  various  destinations  in  the  lights  and  shadows 
of  the  practical  world;  but  in  whatever  departments  of  ac- 
tive life  it  may  be  your  fortunes  to  serve  the  science  and 
literature  of  which  you  have  acquired  the  elementary  views 
in  these  tranquil  academic  retirements,  will  ever  aid  your 
toils  and  ennoble  your  progress. 

It  is  an  idle  notion  on  which  men  rest  in  their  inert 
compromise  with  their  sense  of  duty  that  the  devoted  study 
of  the  science  of  their  particular  profession  is  all  that  is  ab- 
stractly required  of  them,  withou  regard  to  collateral  ac- 
complishments or  illustrative  pim'iits.  We  may,  indeed, 
by  that  plan  become  safe  and  laborious  adepts  within  the 
narrow  bounds  of  our  vocation  an  A  for  its  microscopic  min- 
utice;  but  we  cannot  thus  advance  the  authoritative  influ- 
ence of  our  science,  or  the  useful  dignity  of  our  profession 
and  its  exalted  efficiency.  We  may  deserve  the  iron  crown 
of  drudges;  but  the  world  will  find  little  in  our  labours  for 
praise,  and  nothing  for  the  claims  of  ambition,  or  the  starry 
honours  of  the  tomb.  Knowledge  in  all  its  divisions, 
literature  in  all  its  refreshing  and  elegant  miscellany,  should 


23  SECOND    ANXUAL    ORATION. 

be  ever  your  fond  and  habitual  pursuits.  I  will  not  detain 
you  by  any  exhortation  in  the  cause  of  ancient  classical 
literature,  daily  so  cog^frtly  inculcated,  and,  in  its  peculiar 
department,  so  eloquenuy  exemplified  to  you,  its  utility 
and  imperative  claims  on  your  minds  make  a  fixed  article 
of  your  literary  faith.  It  is  of  no  importance  to  show  why 
it  is,  or  weaken  our  admiration  by  skeptical  queries  why  it 
should  so  specially  be,  that  ancient  classical  literature  pre- 
sents us  these  unimpeachable  models  of  taste,  as  well  as  a 
treasury  of  excellencies  of  various  thought  and  tersest  gaie- 
ties. As  examplars  of  dense  and  sententious  diction  and 
concentrated  brilliancy  as  well  as  of  melodious  fluency  and 
of  excursive  and  heroic  majesty,  the  pre-eminence  of  these 
works  is  established  by  the  tasteful  suffrage  of  every  suc- 
cession of  literary  votaries,  and  is  every  day  reflected  in 
the  mental  victories  or  embellished  pageant  of  all  who  are 
militant  in  the  field  of  argument  or  of  fancy.  They  are  not 
therefore,  obsolete  memorials  worthy  only  of  pedantic  del- 
vers;  but  transcripts  of  mind  that  have  their  honours  yet 
fresh  upon  them  and  a  radiance  never  to  be  extinguished. 

I  will  now  disengage  you,  gentlemen,  from  the  durance 
in  which  my  rambling  remarks  have  so  long  held  you.  A 
world  of  contingencies,  and  a  field  of  intellect  is  before 
you — resources  that  spread  their  wealth  and  charms  to  a 
pure  moral  day,  solicit  your  minds.  Use  them  with  all  the 
zeal  of  intelligence.  Remember  that  the  purified  liberties  of 
our  republic  are  consecrated  not  only  by  theoretical  sanc- 
tions of  conveniance,  but  by  principles  morally  imperative, 
and  religiously  sublime:  that  the  excellencies  of  a  good 
citizen  involve  the  improved  mind  and  the  charities  of  the 
soul  as  well  as  the  care  of  the  social  interest  and  the  quick 
sense  of  political  rights  <t  and  that  your  most  honourable 
fame  will  be  that  which.)  nail  adorn  the  wise  and  beneficent 
tablets  of  your  lives  aiu^the  virtuous  rest  of  your  graves. 


^ 


S' 


